(By Caitlin Franzmann)
Following on from my last post; I had circular spaces on my mind. While spending some time at Kunci Cultural Studies Centre I noticed a well in the garden and thought about this perfect resonant space and its connection to an important cultural space.
Joel and I started discussing ideas about KUNCI being a place of creativity, knowledge and sharing. A space that is, in a way, an alternative to religion and institutions. A kind of secular chapel. It is a community where ideas, histories and dialogue are collected, circulate and are disseminated.
At the same time I continued to listen to the sounds of Jogja and consider the sonic layers of the city –- the high altitudes of the call to prayer sent from the ‘heavens’, the grounding everyday rhythm and noise of the streets. I instantly thought of the underground well as another sub-terrain layer connected to nature, the body, emotions and knowledge. The rhythm of a city does after all include the “brain ripples”, breath and drumming hearts of its inhabitants.
Joel and I decided to compose a sound-work together that could respond to these ideas and be installed inside the well. We hope to compose a piece comprising readings of texts selected from the library housed at KUNCI, especially texts that deal with sound, rhythm, time. Thinking back to talk of energies, I have selected the following text from Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. “Everywhere where there is an interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm.”
In addition to this, Joel bought a stash of cassette tapes in Solo including a selection of Canary ‘bird songs’. We’re going to incorporate these recordings with thoughts of the ‘canaries in the coalmine’ – and of animal sentinel’s that warn of dangers to come – birds calling from below the earth.
